By Tyler Eaton
It was an active week for Liverpool’s academy sides with mixed results against Athletico Madrid, Burnley, and West Ham.
Liverpool’s older academy players had three games to challenge themselves this week. The U19S opened their UEFA Youth League campaign with a 2-2 draw to Athletico Madrid.
The young Reds were 2-0 up at halftime through goals from Mor Talla Ndiaye and Josh Sonni-Lambie. Attacker Joe Bradsahw provided the opener from a corner, while Sonni-Lambie produced a great left-foot finish for the second half.
Atletico were much stronger after the break and equalised in the 90th minute through centre-back Adrian Lis-Zielinski. Liverpool nearly nicked it late in stoppage time when Erik Farkes hit the post.
Next, the U18S put in another four-goal performance against Burnley, winning 4-2. Debutant Joseph Dixon opened the scoring before Charlie Huth doubled the Reds advantage. Once again, Liverpool would surrender a two-goal lead, and the score was tied 2-2 at half-time.
Just after halftime, 17-year-old AJ Yeguo produced a goal of the season contender when he collected a Farkes lay-off and rifled a strike in from the left side. Farkes then scored himself after some good work from Zak Coxon to complete the victory.
On Monday, Liverpool U21S suffered their first defeat of the PL2 season with a late 1-0 defeat to West Ham. The young Reds probably deserved more from the game. Joe Bradshaw smashed the bar from range, Jayden Danns had an effort stopped by a last-ditch block, and Rob Page’s side controlled large chunks of the game; they just couldn’t find an opener.
In other academy news, Liverpool U13S competed in Virgil Van Dijk’s Virgil’s Legacy Trophy as defending champions and topped a group containing AC Milan, Groningen, and Ajax. They then lost 1-0 to Barcelona in the semi-finals.
There was news on the contract front too, with Haydn Murray-Holme signing his first professional contract and 19-year-old Patrik Farkes joining after four years at Blackburn Rovers.
Next week, the U18S travel to Derby on Saturday while the U21S host Brighton on the same day.
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